The railway train coming into a station does not draw up with a jerk, but gradually slows down.  So with us; we cannot come out of our rushing lives all in a moment into the quiet of God’s presence; we need to slow down.

But much of the wandering in prayer is the direct result of the habit of wandering in life.  Flitting from one subject, one book, one occupation to another; scrappy reading, talking, thinking; then, as a natural consequence, scrappy praying.  A great master of the spiritual life used to say, “You will get far more help in your prayers by leading a more useful life, than by making tremendous efforts after concentration when you are actually at prayer.”

The one who tries to keep alive the habitual sense of God’s presence makes his whole life a prayer, of which the stated devotions only form a natural part.  It is comparatively easy for such a one to concentrate his thought and to keep his attention fixed when engaged in his prayers.

Just a word or two about books of devotion.  They serve a most useful purpose, especially in preparation and thanksgiving for Confession or Communion, but should never be allowed to take the entire place of the Christian’s glorious privilege of pleading the “Abba Father,” and speaking to God in his own words, day by day.

Be careful not to use prayers which are manifestly beyond your own standpoint or out of harmony with your own feeling.  The mere repetition of phrases that do not represent your inner attitude towards truth only tends to formality; the effort to force a kind of artificial conformity, because you think you ought to feel this or that, invariably ends in unreality.  Given these cautions, devotional books may be of great use, even for regular daily prayer, and often help to call back the thoughts which are flying off at a tangent.

To speak of discipline without touching upon Confession would be to omit one of its most essential features.  Nightly self-examination must be performed, and that not perfunctorily, but with real intention of repentance and strictness of living.  Self-examination is nothing more nor less than spiritual account-keeping; without it the man has no real idea of how the business of his soul stands.

When it reveals the fact that sin is making headway and the spirit losing ground, then the wise teaching of the Prayer Book should be followed; “the grief”—­for such it ought to be—­opened in Confession to God, before one of God’s ministers, and the benefit of absolution secured.

Much of the terrible prejudice felt against this practice arises from the mistaken idea that the priest professes to forgive us our sins.  The words of the Absolution in the Visitation of the Sick, in our own Prayer Book, put the matter on its true footing:—­“Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath left power to His Church to absolve, ... forgive thee ... and by His authority ...  I absolve thee.”  The source of all pardon and the right to exercise